Made it.

[skdvr]

Well Jim and I both happened to leave St Louis around the same time this afternoon headed twards TRL. We actually passed each other a couple of times going down Hwy 44. I had a slightly longer dive (by maybe 10 or 15 min), but I got to the house and went down to check on the boat. I thought instead of just making sure that it started I thought I would run it around a little. I ended up going across the main channel twards the State Park. I looked at my phone and noticed that I had missed his call and called him back. I ended up beaching the boat near his camper and going up and having a drink and good conversation with Jim and Joan.

Looking forward to getting into the water tomorrow.

Phil

[skdvr]

Jim and I got in 2 good dives today then my sinus was not working with me and I started to get a headache from my damn neck seal. The vis is nothing to write home about right now. I would say the best that we saw was 10ft. And that was from the surface down to 120'. We dove The Saddle and a small point right new the State Park (Can't rememeber the name right now).

I did have a fist today though.

This was the first time I was more worried about the vis on the surface more than I was about the vis in the water.

http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll34/pebalsamo/P3260018.jpg

All I can say is that without GPS I never would have made it across the lake to the State Park.

Hopefully the weather will hold out for us tomorrow and we can get a few more good dives in.

Phil

[SLIM]

LOL

With the lake at about 2 foot or a tad more up in the last 2-3 days, and all the rain, I am supprised you had that good of vis.

You are lucky, Oh just need more time on the lake, no need for a GPS when you know it better, LOL'


SLIM

[theskull]

Phil, I believe you're referring to Poverty Point -- the point just outside the State Park Marina. Excellent dive site, I've had many many great dives there. I'll bet SLIM has names for all the rocks. ;)

theskull

[skdvr]

Phil, I believe you're referring to Poverty Point -- the point just outside the State Park Marina. Excellent dive site, I've had many many great dives there. I'll bet SLIM has names for all the rocks. ;)

theskull

Thats it... Thanks. I was going to ask Jim the name of it again this morning. For some reason I just could not remember.

Getting ready to head out for the morning. This afternoon is looking like thunderstoms so we are going to try to get a couple in before it comes.

Phil

[SLIM]

Most of them have names. Did you get to see the small caves and the gong hangin in the tree?

Hmm, I wonder how many dives I have there at that spot? When you all did the sadle, haw far did you get? Make it to the crack?

Good luck, as I got home, we started getting the storm to move in so hope you all got a dive or 2 in before and off the lake before about 2 or 3.

SLIM

[skdvr]

We got in 3 dives today.

1. Zebulon Pike - had a great dive except that when I went to shoot a bag my reg started free flowing and while messing with that I lost track of my depth and ended up around 15ft (from around 25 or so) before I realized that I was not in control. At that point Jim had already vanished, I could not even see his bubbles so I just went to the surface. I was not very happy with myself.... Other than that it was a great dive.

2. Duck Island - This dive was a challenge before we ever got in the water. The wind had really picked up and the first time I beached the boat the wind was getting a hold of me and blowing me around to much so I backed the boat off and went around to the other side. We got geared up and walked across the island so that we could try to find the boat that is just off the island. It took some scouring but we finally came across the line that leads to the boat. On the way back Jim was fighting his buoyancy a little and about the same time I reallized that I forgot to put my weight belt on and my tanks were starting to get a little light. Shortly after that I was having trouble trying to get to the bottom to grab some rocks to put in my pocket. Jim saw me rocking back and forth trying to get air out of my suit and he said that he felt like pulling out is knife and stabbing me with it because he thought I was making fun of him :D. When he saw me grab a stump (which broke apart when I tried to pull myself down) he then realized that I was having troubles too. I grabbed a couple of rocks and then we just continued up to the island. All in all it was a good dive, just a LOT of work.

At this point the wind was just to crazy to try to anchor the boat anywhere so we decided to park the boat and drive over to the Dam.

3. The Dam - Weather was starting to look like it was going to turn nasty so we got in the water and had a great dive back to the dam. I had never dove over to the dam so we got over there and Jim had me smack the wall. Turned the dive and came back. When we surfaced it was looking REALLY nasty and just after we surfaced it just barely started raining. By the time we got out of the water and up to his truck it started POURING. We got all our gear off and I ended up driving my truck home in my drysuit. Not the most comfortable dive but it worked.

By the time I hit Hwy 86 it was blue skies above me. Still looks pretty nasty out there but it is not raining any more.

All in all we had 3 good dives.

Vis ~10'
Temp 46*
on all dives.

Phil

[skdvr]

When you all did the sadle, haw far did you get? Make it to the crack?
SLIM

Nope. We really did not stay on the saddle. We descended off a ledge and never found the saddle. We went down to around 130' and we got to 5 min left of No Deco time so we turned, ascended a little and headed back. We ended up going back past the Point and around the area where the jumpers jump. After messing around over there a little we turned back and headed back to the Point. We were anchored just off the tip of the Point. So it was not really a saddle dive. It was more of a Looking for the Saddle dive.

Phil

[scububa]

Nice report, Phil. Sorry I have been off the net. I even had my computer with me, but only messed with it to check the weather and do one little work admin task.

Great weekend and the weather reporters are our best friends. All their forecasts must have kept a bunch of people from the lake. Normally it is starting to pick up a bit more with spring break, etc. The weather actually turned out to be pretty darn nice. Waking up to the fog Friday morning was strange. You couldn't see 30 ft. I stepped out of the trailer early and smelled skunk and couldn't see any of the other trailers. Strange.

We got mixed reports on the vis (underwater). We decided that with the fog and the unknow vis, we would do Poverty Point first. Close, no boat accident potential and it is a great dive location. Nice dive and when the fog cleared off a nice day. I got more sun than I realized. Phil spent most of the trip putting up with me getting use to going thru the motions with my new dry gloves. So, I wanted to practice gas switches, bag shooting, putting down and picking up stages, etc. I can attach a snap bolt to my gloves easier than anything else. I wondered what Phil would do if I came up with all my snaps attached to my gloves like an underwater Edward Scissor hands.

The vis was amazingly consistent. 8 to 10 feet. One exception was at the pinnicale grotto at Poverty Point. For some reason there was a 'bubble' around it maybe 12 feet or so that was really clear. We also hit a clear spot coming across the sandy bottom to the Higgins cruiser.

Another funny thing was that there were very, very, very few fish. Normally they are all over the place. I saw one bass at Breezy Point and some buffalo carp at the dam. Nothing else. We came up and a guy was pre-fishing for a weekend tournment. I told him, we've been all over that spot, up and down, back and forth. There are NO fish there. He fished the whole time we squared our gear away. Finally, as we got ready to push out, he dropped his rod, made a couple of comments and 'hole shotted' to the other side of the lake in apparent disgust. I told Phil, "He should have listened."

We did five good quality dives, practiced several drills, did an S-Drill on every dive and it seemed to fill up the time. I didn't get to see SLIM this trip, but I did go over and see a few folks on Mike's boat and had a drink or three. Dick, Paul, Roger and a few others were there...it was a fairly early night, but enjoyable.

It was great to get to dive with Phil. I have been around Mermet with him but never really dove with him. Phil, FWIW, Joan (my wife) thought you were an awfully nice guy. (Hmmmmm)

[skdvr]

It was nice to have the lake all to ourself.

It was nice to meet some of the guys over at the Marina. Normally when I am there everything is going about 200mph so I never really got to chat with anyone. Thanks for the introductions Jim.

It was a great weekend. I wish that we could have snuck in a dive Sunday morning, but my sinuses are still pretty plugged up.

Phil

[scububa]

Well, since my knee was killing me, it worked out for the best. I could have dove again, but would have paid for it later. It stayed pretty sore yesterday, but today it is feeling better. I am sure due to some rest.

[SLIM]

Boy I CAN'T wait for you all to come down, LOL LOL LOL

I am going to have sooooo much fun.

SLIM